To North Georgia Mountains from Atlanta · · PAGE 7. 

November 16, 2020:  Monday morning is DAY 6 of our 2020 Vacation.  We left Jessica's house at 7:35 AM when she headed out to her office.  We are on the road again heading into the North Georgia Mountains and western North Carolina on this day.  We went to the East on Glenwood Avenue to get on I-285 going north to the intersection of I-85 that will take us toward South Carolina, but we are not going that far as this sign below is about 30 miles from her house in Decatur.  This is the first time I have ever been on Interstate route 985 going up toward Gainesville, Georgia.  Most of my travels up I-85 into the Carolinas were in the 1970's on business trips in my leased company car.

We took Exit 113 from I-85 and started up I-985 going north.  Exit 4 on that route has a Wal-Mart and I was running out of my Hershey's Dark Chocolate Bars with Almonds.  We made a stop there and I went in to get my treats.  Linda let Chase out for a walk on the grass area seen here at the edge of the parking lot.  We filled the car with gas on Saturday when we went to Lowe's for the granite rocks.  We are ready to go north on that fuel.

We got back on I-985 and took it up to Exit 24 where it ended and put us onto US 129 going north toward Cleveland, Georgia.  Our destination this morning is the highest point in the State of Georgia, Brasstown Bald Mountain with an elevation of 4,784 feet above sea level.  This will be my second time to go there since 1971.

After turning left at the end of the off ramp from I-985, we had to go about two blocks south to get to the intersection of US 129 going north.

There was a bypass around Cleveland, Georgia which had the main road as the bypass.  The GPS helped out where the signage was not there.  We would be leaving the Cleveland area using Georgia state route 75 going north from here.

We reached a point where the bypass had our previous route going north and south and my GPS was saying to go straight ahead, which turned out to be the correct way to Georgia Route 75 that would go toward our first tourist destination today.

The road ahead was still under construction when we passed this way.  It will match the four-lane bypass that got us this far around the town of Cleveland, Georgia.  The road ahead quickly becomes a two-lane road with the right-of-way being prepared to be a four-lane route like the one seen in the image above.  The image below is from January 2020 where the work was just beginning to make this part of the bypass wider.  There was a lot more that had been done by the time we passed this way on November 16, 2020.  This two-lane road ends when it gets to Georgia route 75.

A left turn at the end of this road above puts us on Georgia State Route 75 northbound heading for Helen, Georgia.  Georgia State Route 17 joins GA 75 about a mile East of Helen to run concurrently up into the mountains ahead.  This town has an Alpine Theme to it.  The town overflows with tourists for October fest each year.

Some of the motels here have alpine trim on their buildings.

Here is the view from the west end of the main tourist area as GA Route 75 heads out of town toward the high mountains.  There is a bridge over the Chattahoochee River in Helen where the river is approximately 60 feet wide.

This bend in the highway shows the river coming down from the mountains going to Helen.  The river is about 20 feet wide here as it comes down to the curve in the canyon on the left side of the highway.  The curve to the RIGHT at the end of the straightaway is where the river and road take different paths.  The creeks beside the road beyond that point are the tributaries to the river going south toward Atlanta and down to the Gulf of Mexico.

This is the high point at 2,448 feet above sea level on the way from Helen, GA to the GA 180 route to Brasstown Bald Mountain.  This was another stop for Chase to get a walk.  I received a customer call while we were parked here.  This is Monday, so customers may call me like the one who called at 10:01 AM at the roadside location seen in this image below..

This is the entrance to the top of Brasstown Bald Mountain, the highest point in the state of Georgia at 4,784 feet mean sea level.  The Google Earth Photo vehicle did not drive up there.  I got a few Google Earth views from above putting things in perspective.
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Here is the big picture showing the route of the road from Georgia route 180 up to the parking lot.  That blue line winding to the parking lot on the mountain is my GPS ground track.  My GPS track in the upper right corner of the image is the route I took after leaving Brasstown Bald Mountain heading up to North Carolina.

The parking lot elevation is 4,349 feet where I parked the car.  They have a small shuttle bus to take you up to the top of the mountain that is 4,784 feet above sea level.